August Happiness Highlights

I saw this on Chanelle’s blog and I thought it was such a great idea that I decided to give it a whirl! This is quite a departure for me since it’s mostly non-beauty related discussion… here’s a glimpse into my everyday life. 🙂

Mon Aug 1 – Civic Holiday so a day off from work! I met with my friend from Newfoundland for lunch.

Tues Aug 2 – attended a MUJI open house event and got some stationery loot to play with! 😀Wed Aug 3 – I had 5 meetings that spanned 7 hours, leaving me with 1 hour to do actual work – but the Happiness Highlight is that I got to eat my sushi lunch during a conference call.

Thurs Aug 4 – I got to pet 2 puppies in 2 separate puppy encounters. One was a French Bulldog, and the other was a poodle type and both tried to play with me by nipping at my hand with their sharp little teeth! 😛

Fri Aug 5 – went to MAC over lunch with coworker and she treated me to some eye shadows!Sat Aug 6 – watched the new Jason Bourne movie, which was enjoyable (although the first one is still the best).

Tues Aug 9 – the SO showed me a new game he’s playing where he gets to build space ships and battle other people, looks like fun and most importantly, he’s enjoying himself. 🙂

Wed Aug 10 – did a presentation at work and it went well.

Thurs Aug 11 – finally forced to convert to the new photo ID Health Card (I’m one of the last hold-outs). But the line up at Service Ontario counter wasn’t bad at all – I was in and out in 15 minutes!I’ve had this same card since I was a little kid! It’s cracked and the laminate is peeling off… sniff sniff, bye bye red & white card!

Fri Aug 12 – finally made the decision to go to the walk-in clinic for a recurring hive / rash situation on my legs that I’ve been dealing with for a month. 😦 The clinic had no line-ups at all – the clinic doc had no clue about what I had, and gave me a referral to a dermatologist for Monday.

Mon Aug 15 – visited the dermatologist for my legs and he thinks I got bitten by bed bugs and took a skin biopsy (ouchy). 😮 I’m aghast at the thought of our place having bed bugs (the doc suspects due to our recent trip to Japan). So we watched this video on how to detect bed bugs (don’t watch if squeamish) and then we turned our place upside down and… found nadda. Not a single trace (this is the happiness highlight part! But I still laid down bed bug traps, just in case.)†

Tues Aug 16 – restocked my stash of Squish gummies for work! They are having a 5 bags for $20 so I had to get 5 bags of gummies. I HAD to!Wed Aug 17 – two meetings at work got canceled first thing this morning!

Thurs Aug 18 – took the day off work for dentist and doctor (my regular doc, not the derm) appointment – my skin biopsy site is infected and I got prescribed antibiotics. We ordered pizza for dinner instead of cooking.

Fri Aug 19 – called in sick (I never call in sick, I hate doing it! This was my first sick day this year) because my leg still wasn’t feeling great, but it definitely improved from the day prior. I had to keep my leg elevated so I mainly sat or slept, but I ate the best bbq pork fried rice for lunch! 😀

Sat Aug 20 – another low key day to let my leg heal so I watched a bunch of YouTube videos and saw this:

Such a neat idea! Might have to borrow it for the blog. I just love single eye shadows!

Sun Aug 21 – watched St. Vincent, cute movie!

Mon Aug 22 – back to work! Unlike most people, I don’t hate work – I enjoy being productive and not cooped up at home. 😛

Sun Aug 28 – walked around in Kensington Market (a bohemian area with lots of organic grocers and second-hand shops) where they close down the street on Sundays, and we ate ice cream (I had the birthday cake flavour):Yup, that’s a car with grass and plants growing out of it. So typical Kensington Market!

Mon Aug 29 – got the stitches out from my leg where they did the skin biopsy – yippee!

Tues Aug 30 – sucky thing is that I woke up with more hives / rash on my legs, and the not sucky thing is that I found some nice long flowy skirts from MUJI for my cruise coming up in 2 weeks:This MUJI balloon skirt is so comfy, and it can be dressed up too (I bought it in the blue colour as shown).

Wed Aug 31 – checked on our bed bug traps and guess what? They were all empty! *throws confetti* (although, it’s still a mystery about my legs – I’m waiting for the results of the skin biopsy which will be mid-September )

† Sorry about all the details – I didn’t intend this exercise to be a diary! 😛 But if I just stated my happiness highlight as “No bed bugs!” you would have been wondering about the context! 😆

It was quite the eventful month, and even though some crappy things happened, this Happiness Highlights was a fantastic exercise to keep things in perspective! It really makes you appreciate the little things! 🙂 If you read it all, then gold star for you! ⭐ Would you consider keeping a Happiness Highlight for September?

I also changed over my health card this August. I thought I was the last hold out on the old red and white card! Sorry to hear about your leg — but so glad it’s not bed bugs!!! And that despite those frustrations and itchiness you had lots of happiness in August 🙂

I actually received the notice in the mail in July but didn’t open it until much later (the letter looked like junk mail?) and I was worried the walk-in wouldn’t accept my red & white card so I finally went.
I am anxiously waiting for the biopsy results!

Hoooray for no bedbugs! I fear if I started mine this month mine might be a similiar documentary of trying to diagnose a health problem and moaning about how ill and tired I am, so I might wait a month but I LOVE this idea!

Kind of but they’re more like Garden, Food and Home Shows – they don’t really have everything going on, probably the most famous ones are Chelsea Flower Show or Hampton Court Palace Show (they’re not particularly local to me, but I’ve been to them as my parent’s tend to exhibit at them with their Business). Then you’ll have more music festivals which will be more rides and music (obviously), they don’t really all cross paths all that much!

Thank goodness it wasn’t bed bugs!!! I have not been to the Ex in….well, a long damn time. Kensington is always worth a visit, though! I’m surprised at how quick the Health card stuff usually is – always faster than I think it’ll be.

I didn’t have a great August. Had a tooth extracted 😦 not any fault of my own, it just had to go. Had flooding in the kitchen. Not sleeping enough. Gah. I think if I did a happiness journal, it’d all be “I didn’t get pooped on today” and “I shopped online some more”!

Oh no, tooth extracted – ouch! And yeah, the flooding UGH. Well, maybe the little highlights can help offset the crappy stuff (literally, getting crapped on by a newborn is something all of my friends have experienced 😆 )
We go to the Ex every year – just a tradition with us. We don’t do rides or play the games but eat and walk around. We hadn’t been to Kensington Market since LAST summer which is such a shame as we’re in walking distance from there!

Oh the joys of motherhood! Poop and vomit… but I’m sure the good outweighs the bad! 😉
Hmm I’m much more of a sweet food kind of person so I would say my favourites were deep fried cookie dough, and deep fried blueberry pie (at Frans)!

I never got a letter to change my red & white card! I laughed at everyone whenever they got the notification they had to convert… but my day finally came! I had no issues using this at the doctors’ office. I kept my card sandwiched between other cards to make sure it didn’t bend. 😛

August was a busy month for you! You kept track of what happened every day as the month went on, right? Cause kudos to you if you remembered all of this at the end of the month 😂 I can barely remember what happened yesterday!
Okay, what are bed bug traps? I’m picturing miniscule mouse traps. Thank god you don’t have bed bugs in your house, though!! You’d have to throw everything away. But then it makes me wonder what caused your hives… hope your leg gets better soon either way 😞
Oh gosh, your cruise is coming up so soon!! Feels like you just got back from Japan, lol.
I’m tempted to try this for September…

No no I couldn’t remember all the highlights at the end, no way! I kept track about every other day – there were 16 edits to this post! 😛
Bed bug traps are really low tech – basically a bunch of little cardboard boxes with sticky stuff and something that attracts them. And you place them between your mattress and box spring – we got 6 traps and placed them around the perimeter of our mattress. Didn’t find a thing.
Yes, the cruise is coming up sooner than I realized!
You should do this for Sept – it’s a good exercise even for yourself. 🙂

Thank god there wasn’t anything! It would be such a nightmare to take care of having bedbugs in the house.
Can’t wait to see cruise pics, hehe! We decided we’re most likely not going to do another trip this year, so I’m vacationing vicariously through you!
Heh, if anyone should do a Happiness Highlights post, it should probably be me…I’m always complaining!

I’m sure I’ll love the shower gel! Thanks so much for alerting me to it… it smells SOOOOO good!
Emily’s video was so inspiring – with all the hype around palettes, it’s great to see some love for singles! I’m not sure if I’d ever be able to come up with looks like her but I need to show more love to all my singles!
I try not to think too much about hotel rooms and bed bugs… I know some people who bring their own bed sheets to travel, that’s pretty extreme. I’m not convinced my Japan trip had anything to do with my skin since I came back beginning of June and did have any symptoms until mid July. So puzzling!

I had issues with bites on me but they wets from fleas. I have no idea how we got fleas because both my cats are indoor only. But I started giving them monthly flea med treatments (yeah trying to hold down an at least 12 pound cat to give meds is a circus) and no fleas since.

My dog when I was a kid was smart. We’d hide her heartworm pill in a piece of cheese. That dog would eat the cheese & spit out the pill. Or we’d rub her throat to make her swallow… she’d fake swallow, hide the pill under her tongue & spit it out the second we turned our backs. 😂

LMAO! I guess our old dog was dumb, we’d either mix it with her food or we’d just pry open her mouth, shove it on her tongue and give her a treat right after! She had epilepsy so we had to give her a pill daily.

Love this idea. It’s good to try and think of something positive each day, even if it’s not been a great day. August was a great month for me so wishing I’d done it then. I’ll do this for September as it’s one of my least favourite months☺ x

Sorry to hear about the hives. Hoping you get the answers you’re looking for soon. I like the idea of this. We tend to focus so much of our energy on the negative aspects and forget all about the small ones. Nothing better than birthday cake flavored ice cream. 🙂

I was apprehensive about getting the skin biopsy but now I’m glad I did it. Fingers crossed it reveals something.
It’s so true, bad things have a tendency to negate / dwarf good things – I’m not sure why that is.
And yes, the birthday cake flavour ice cream made me feel like a kid again! 😛

When I saw you’d decided to do this, the biggest smile spread across my face! Being able to share and read what makes someone happy is a beautiful thing and thank you so much for linking to me. (FYI, my August highlights will be up Friday night my time – not sure when that is for you because I’m ahead and it all starts to get confusing). Yay for no bed bugs and I hope you get to the bottom of what’s causing the hives soon. Have the antibiotics helped at all? Sounds like overall you had a good month with lots of yummy food and treats! 😋

Thanks so much for posting this – really helped me this month! 🙂
I think Friday night for you is Friday morning for me! 😛 I just checked, you’re 14 hrs ahead of us!
Yes the antibiotics helped with the infection on my skin biopsy, but not the hives / rash overall (I was hoping it’d have a dual effect!)

Surely the doctor should have prescribed some cream or ointment as well? I had a situation last year where my legs were covered in red itchy spots and part of the cause was an antibiotic I had taken. It’s one that’s really sensitive to the sun and it wasn’t fun at all 😦

Oh sorry, I should have mentioned that yes, the dermatologist DID prescribe me a cortisone ointment to relief the itching. However, they’re more to help with symptoms and not a preventative thing. It’s just been very frustrating that after one bout of the rash would subside and start to heal, another batch comes up. Pretty soon I will run out of clear skin on my legs! *cries!*
How did you narrow down the cause of the issue for your legs? So many people have advised me on what the causes may be, including allergy to foods, stress, possibly to the hot weather we’ve had… etc. But I’m just puzzled why it’s isolated to just my legs?

I had been in the car on a trip with my brother and the hot sun was shining on my legs, combine that with the antibiotic I’d been taking that makes skin more sensitive to sunlight and bam! Stress may also have been a factor but like you it was isolated to my legs where the sun had been shining. I was also prescribed antihistamine tablets.

The thing is, I honestly do not believe they’re bug bites of any sort. I have been so vigilant with monitoring my skin – these bumps rise up from my skin, there’s no bite wound at all. Just so mysterious. My well-meaning friends / coworkers have suggested many possible causes: allergy to food, stress, weather related… who knows!
You need the balloon skirt! I’m tempted to go back for the navy one, even though I really shouldn’t! It’s so lightweight and bouncy and COMFY!

Ops, click too quick. Back on your hives. Whatever the cause, I’m sure the good doctor will find out. 😉 long time ago I got scabies after visiting a small village for some volunteer work. I had bumps all over and no bite marks. It was just horrible and itchy 😭 I hope your skin will recover soon. Little bumps are no fun

I love this post! I’m glad to hear about all the positive things, but I’m sorry to hear your rash hasn’t cleared up.

I’m not surprised it’s not bed bugs – these b@stards would have bitten both you and your SO – and they wouldn’t have limited themselves to your legs – they would have gone for every single tiny bit of skin that would have been accessible to them – especially your face, neck and hands and every body part that’s not covered by your duvet! And considering that beg bugs multiply in no time, your place would have been infested by now, and both you and your SO would wake up with more and more tiny bite marks everywhere – every day.

So whilst I haven’t seen the rash, I really wonder what the dermatologist was basing his provisional diagnosis on. If the dermie had no clue about bed bugs, he should have spent two minutes googling them and he would have found that a rash on a small, limited are on the skin is not a typical symptom of bed bug bites.

I’m also wondering why the demie didn’t give you (or prescribe) a medicated steroid cream (like Fucibet which contains a topical steroid and fusidic acid which is a poweful anti-microbial agent) right after the biopsy – this would have stopped the inflammation, and it would most likely have dealt with any potential infection – it might even have resolved the issue before you went to see your GP. Whilst I’m no doctor, I’ve got two decades worth of experience as a skin patient – and this dermie wouldn’t have my confidence.

Stashy, it might be something annoying, but harmless. Is the rash itchy? And have you googled skin rashes? You might find a photo of a rash that looks exactly like yours – if so, check out the condition, see if it fits, and tell the demie about your provisional diagnosis – maybe that’ll help him.

I so hope the rash will go away and it will never bug you again.
Let me know how things are going. xx

I didn’t want to get down to too much detail in the post, but yes, the dermatologist did prescribe me a cortisone ointment to help relieve the itching. However, it’s not a preventative measure.
When he suggested it was bed bugs, I immediately told him that my SO wasn’t having any of these symptoms and his reply was that they “sometimes favour one person”. WHAT?! I never knew bugs were so selective! (sarcasm) Combined with the fact that we found absolutely NO bugs, it just doesn’t add up.

When I saw my GP, she was also of an opinion that I was bitten by something, however she said it could have been just walking through a park or being outside and bitten by something. And that’s why it’s only me and not the SO. The fact that the rash is recurring makes me think it’s something else. I have taken photos through the progression to document this. Yes, they’re very itchy at the onset, and my skin is puffy and inflamed and very warm to the touch, then sometimes they will form a small blister at the center (sometimes not), then they will flatten out and turn a bright reddish purple and then a darkened spot will be left. All of these have been isolated to my legs (both), mainly below my knees. I’ve googled this so much and looked at so many pictures, and haven’t found an exact match to my symptoms. I’ve also been taking antihistamine nightly since it’s been suggested that my body is overreacting to something. My main fear is that this is a symptom of something bigger like an autoimmune disorder. But I’ve had no other symptoms – no flu like illness, no joint issues, no stomach issues.

I’m considering going back to my GP to get a referral to a specific dermatologist who I saw years ago – I went to her twice for separate skin concerns and she diagnosed and fixed me in a pinch. The only issue is that she’s very difficult to book with, and she has terrible bedside manners! 😛
Thanks for your detailed comment! ❤

Oh Stashy, this sounds terrible. 😦
Make sure you keep the skin moisturised. Have you tried a nappy rash cream? They contain zinc oxide and all sorts of anti-bacterial, anti-microbial, anti-fungal and lots of other stiff which is beneficial to skin healing.

If it’s auto-immune, antihistamines won’t work. Antihistamines work to tackle histamine. Autoimmune conditions can’t be treated with antihistamines because the under lying cause isn’t due to histamine, but due to your immune system attacking your own cells at random.

I think the fact that the rash is limited to a certain part of your skin is a good sign. With autoimmune conditions you’d get rashes everywhere – especially on elbows, knees, buttocks, shoulders… I’ve got a few autoimmine conditions, so I know quite a bit about them. But obviously I only have experience as a patient.

I think you should go back to the other dermie. If she can sort you out, who cares if she has warm personality or not.

I did initially apply a zinc cream when I first started getting the rash but then I was worried to apply anything on them!

I’m fairly certain it’s not an autoimmune thing – just so many people (non-medical!) throwing suggestions around! I agree, the fact that it’s isolated to my legs is a good sign – I’ve been monitoring my whole body for any signs of anything. Sorry to hear that you suffer from autoimmune conditions, from reading online about them, they’re quite life-changing.

The challenge for me right now is timing. I do want to wait until I get the results from the biopsy before I run off to another dermatologist. As it was, my GP didn’t want to do anything either until the biopsy came back. My follow up appointment with the derm is in 9 days… and then I’m gone on vacation for 10 days. So, I shall have to wait…

Thanks so much for your concern and information!!! I will definitely keep you posted!

LMAO! I didn’t even think of that! No, didn’t you see the accompanying photo? The EX is for Exhibition. It’s the annual Canadian National Exhibition which is like a big carnival / amusement park / home & garden / craft show. It’s a really fun event! Nothing to do with any EX boyfriend LMAO! 😉

See the twisted pathways of my mind? I even read the caption I didn’t know one reflected the other! A collection of pictures about walking around seemed like you were hanging out with someone rather than AT somewhere. At EX just formed in my head images of your EX’s place… Well, again, see the twisted pathways of my mind?

I absolutely love this post! What a great idea… I hope your leg gets better soon, but you still managed to cram a lot of happiness into August 🙂 The CNE looks amazing, I remember going as a kid when I visited family in Toronto. So much better than the CLE that we get here! They had something similar going on in Vancouver when I was there that looked great, but not enough time to check it out. I may have to borrow this idea for a future post! I’ll link back to yourself and Chanelle of course!

Thanks so much Robyn! The CNE is an annual visit for us – why not, it’s so close to us! In fact, I went back a 2nd time this year with a girl friend of mine. We went after work on a Friday night and just ATE! 😆
Oh, I’d love to read your Happiness Highlight – it’s a great way to have a glimpse into people’s world outside of their beauty life! 🙂